Local 21 members across Northern California are showing the value of public service during this crisis. This is especially true of our union siblings working in healthcare, who are extremelyvulnerable right now. They need the full weight of the City and County of San Francisco behind them. We can only protect the health of us all if we protect the health of our frontline healthcare workers.

We are very grateful for a recent resolution introduce by Supervisor Matt Haney and Supervisor Shamann Walton that ensures frontline healthcare workers are protected in their fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The resolution includes personal protective equipment (PPE) for all healthcare workers, free testing and treatment for frontline providers, and two weeks paid leave for quarantining (before having to use sick leave).

Haney and Walton announced the resolution alongside Local 21 Rehab chapter president Deanna Chan. At her workplace, Laguna Honda Hospital, five healthcare workers have already tested positive COVID-19.

Deanna expressed the dire circumstances of frontline workers: “We want to make sure that all the front line workers have access to the correct kind of PPE. It is a critical situation — we don’t want to be unwittingly spread this virus as we work. We might not find out until days later that somebody we had seen two, three days ago is now a person under investigation (for COVID-19) or an active COVID-19 client. It's just days too late of, again, not being able to protect ourselves, our families, or the people who we work with."

This is the kind of bold, urgent action that we expect from our elected leaders. We will be working hard to support the passage of this resolution, and encourage other politicians to stand up for public workers everywhere.